Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

Article Index
Dr. Ng Poh Yin
A doctor to avoid
Finding Tzu Chi
A humble and loving heart
Three vows
All Pages

Compassion welled up from within the depths of Dr. Ng Poh Yin’s heart when she saw the lack of medical care and the harsh living conditions of the cyclone survivors in Myanmar. As a urologist and obstetrician-gynecologist, and also a member of the Tzu Chi International Medical Association, she was filled with sympathy for them as she provided them with treatment. She was also touched by their gratitude—their smiles brought her joy and generated an abundance of warmth inside her. For the first time in her life, she felt grateful to her patients for giving her the chance to serve.

Dr. Ng Poh Yin (伍寶燕) was greeted with hearty shouts of “Congratulations!” by volunteers at the Tzu Chi free clinic center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the day before she flew to Taiwan to be certified as a Tzu Chi commissioner. Her smile was so broad that her eyes narrowed into slits, and she began to roar with laughter. But then she suddenly covered her mouth with her hands and stifled her laughter. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t laugh so loudly,” she said in a low voice. “Some senior Tzu Chi sisters told me that as a commissioner, I must conduct myself properly. I must speak softly. I mustn’t laugh loudly. I mustn’t eat while walking. I mustn’t do this or that. I must be good.”

Seeing how seriously Dr. Ng recounted the Tzu Chi sisters’ words made everyone else start to laugh too. When the merriment died down a little, Dr. Ng expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the friends surrounding her. She said that joining Tzu Chi and training to be a commissioner had really made her life much richer and fuller.